They can summon raptors out of nowhere in the middle of battle, while on the campaign map they can link up cities through conquest and diplomacy, strengthening the power of their mystical geomantic web. “Each race had a unique set of features, and we’ve definitely doubled down on that.” In the case of the Lizardmen, they don’t just get to ride dinosaurs. “With the DLC, we experimented a lot,” designer Mark Sinclair tells me. Warhammer 2, in general, feels like a significant departure from the tried and tested formula of the series. They’re bolder and weirder – far away from the armies of the historical Total Wars. The Lizardmen don’t seem like a faction that could have existed in the first game. Total War: Warhammer 2 revels in the absurdity of it all.
A dinosaur carrying a solar cannon shoots the dragon and then goes berserk, trampling the pointy-eared archers who haven’t been flung aside. And they’re surrounded by countless High Elves and Lizardmen, duking it out over an ancient ruin. A lizard, riding a lizard, fighting a lizard. I’m watching a lizard, riding a gargantuan dinosaur, beating the snot out of a dragon.
